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Cardiac Catheterization

The Heart Hospital’s highly skilled cardiologists use an invasive imaging procedure called cardiac catheterization to diagnose and treat heart disease, vascular disease, and heart valve disease. These procedures take place in our cardiac catheterization (cath) labs and use small, flexible tubes called catheters to navigate the arteries and veins that lead to your heart. The Heart Hospital has 4 cardiac cath labs equipped with state-of-the-art technology to provide advanced diagnostic and interventional treatment 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A large majority of our heart attack patients are taken immediately to the cardiac cath lab to open blocked arteries and minimize heart damage. Fast and comprehensive heart attack treatment minimizes damage to the heart muscle and increases the chance for survival. Treatment time for heart attack at The Heart Hospital is well below the national average.

Our physicians have years of experience diagnosing and treating narrowed blood vessels and other heart and vascular issues. They stay informed of the latest technologies and treatments to provide our patients with optimal outcomes, shorter hospital stays and faster recoveries.

Conditions treated with cardiac catheterization

Coronary artery disease

Valve disease

Vascular disease

Heart failure

Arrhythmia

Other procedures that may be done during or after a cardiac catheterization

Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA)/ Angioplasty
In this procedure, your doctor can inflate a tiny balloon at the tip of the catheter. The balloon presses any plaque buildup against the artery wall and improves blood flow through the artery.

Stent Placement
A tiny metal mesh coil or tube is expanded at the end of the catheter, inside an artery, to keep the artery open.

Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR)
This is a pressure management technique that’s used in catheterization to see how much blockage is in an artery.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
OCT uses near-infrared light to create images of the inside of coronary arteries. By using OCT, the doctor can verify stent position, take precise measurements and determine tissue characteristics of the inside of arteries.

Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS)
This test uses a computer and a transducer to send out ultrasonic sound waves to create images of the blood vessels. By using IVUS, the doctor can see and measure the inside of the blood vessels.

*Patients are awake during cardiac cath procedures but receive a small amount of sedating medicine to increase comfort and decrease anxiety.